by Charly Mann

Chapel Hill did not become a legally recogonized town until 1854. There would be no Chapel Hill if the General Assembly of North Carolina in 1789 had not wanted to establish a state University that was centrally located and easily accessed from all parts of the state. When state surveyors convened on the area that is now Chapel Hill, all that was there was deep forest and the ruins of an old church. The location was almost exactly in the center of the then populated areas of the state.

Davie laying the cornerstone for Old East

Four years later, on a warm Saturday afternoon on October 12, 1793, dignitaries from across the state came to lay the cornestone for the first building of the new university. Bright red maples adorned the grounds where this momentous ceremony was held. The name of that building was North Wing; later changed to Old East. On this same day, the state sold lots around the the future university site for what it hoped would be a village where faculty and merchants would reside. The area had no official name, and was then then referred to as New Hope. A few years later when the first map of the state was created that included the future Chapel Hill, the mapmaker designated the place as University.

 
What will become Chapel Hill is simply known as "University" on this 1790 map

The University did not open its doors until February 1795. When the first students arrived, the entire area that was to be the university and Chapel Hill was forest wilderness, with just a single completed building. Students had difficulty getting to the University because the roads within a 25 mile radius were so bad. The tuition for the first year was between $8 and $15 depending on one's chosen major. The only professor was the Reverend David Ker, then 36, who was previously the pastor of a Presbyerian church in Fayetteville. He was paid $300 a year. There was also a tutor specializing in mathemetics who received $100 a year.

Old East in 1799 (Which was only completed building on campus then)

In those early years students paid about $30 for a room and meals. Breakfast was served at 8:00 AM, and the board of trustees mandated that it include "sufficient quantities of good coffee and tea, or chocolate." It also included bread with butter. Lunch, then known as dinner, was the big meal of the day and served at 1:00 PM. It included bacon, which students claimed was almost all fat, as well as fresh meat, puddings, tarts, greens, turnips, along with wheat and corn bread. The evening meal was called supper, and was served around sunset. That meal included milk, tea, or coffee, along with potatoes and some form of bread and vegetables when they were available.

I would not be surprised if we all followed the eating habits of these first Chapel Hillians, and only ate one large meal in the middle of the day, that few of us would have weight problems.

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